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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28303026">A fool's proposal</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thornofthelily/pseuds/Thornofthelily'>Thornofthelily</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Persona 5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Established Relationship, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, christmas day, gifting, manipulating tarot readings to say whatever I need them to say, pure tooth-rotting sweetness</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 14:36:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,504</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28303026</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thornofthelily/pseuds/Thornofthelily</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>This time, Akira used the whole deck, shuffling with a gambler’s expertise, quickly laying out the cards in a classic Celtic cross pattern, face-up. He didn’t want to bore Goro with a card-by-card reading like he’d done for himself and, taking the advice the cards just gave him, he decided to push a little, engage in some rousing intellectual discussion. He scanned over the whole spread, quickly interpreting upright and reversed meanings, positioning, what it all meant. His heart fluttered at what it said, confirming what he had been suspecting. The small box in his pocket felt so heavy.<br/>----<br/>Written for the 21+ akeshuake server yuletide event! Prompt: Gifts</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>124</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>21 plus akeshuake server yuletide 2020 event</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>A fool's proposal</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Merry Christmas, happy new year, and a blessed season's greeting to all!!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Goro never indulged in any sort of romantic whimsy, at least nothing he would admit to. If Akira came home to his favorite flowers arranged in a careful bouquet next to their bed, he never bothered to look for a card, because, as far as Goro was concerned, the flowers may well not be there at all. If he cooked Akira breakfast, he made up the excuse that he had an early shift, and he might as well make two omelets if he was making one. These little gestures, Akira thought he’d get sick of eventually. The coy pretending, the fake little huff in his voice as he turned away so Akira couldn’t see his blush, the coquettish few times Goro side-eyed him and his lips turned up the barest degree, happy to see Akira happy – somehow, after all these years, Akira still found him achingly adorable.</p>
<p>So when he spotted a small wrapped box on their kitchen table the morning of December 25<sup>th</sup>, he didn’t bother waiting on Goro to open it. Hell, he probably wouldn’t even see him until he did. Goro would hide in the bathroom to spare himself the embarrassment getting his boyfriend a Christmas gift.</p>
<p>Akira sat at the table and began to unwrap the present, bound in bright red paper. (Which they ended up using for any kind of gift wrap – “<em>Good for any occasion- birthdays and Christmas,</em>” <em>Akira teased, and Goro smirked and added, “What about weddings?”</em> The phrase “what about weddings” bounced around in Akira’s head for a week.)</p>
<p>He slid his fingers under the crisp corners Goro carefully taped down, trying not to rip any of the paper. After all, it was a precious gift from his boyfriend, and he wanted to enjoy every second of this moment, like he did every Christmas they had together. Christmas, after all, was an especially important day for them, beyond the usual holiday symbolism. It was the day Goro returned to Akira’s life, on what was supposed to be a temporary basis. But a Trickster had ways of bending fate to his whim. Ever the Fool, Akira was, the number zero, infinite potential.</p>
<p>After loosening the tape, he carefully unfolded the paper creased with military precision, unlatching another streak of tape along the underside as he went, undressing the box as slowly and lovingly as he had Goro, the first time they made love.</p>
<p>With a perfect rectangle of paper now spread across the table, Akira could see the details of the box underneath. Long and thin, slightly narrower than the width of his hand but half again as long. Matte black, smooth and pleasant to the touch, almost velvety. The design on the cover really caught Akira’s attention, however; a holographic image that shimmered from gold to green when he tilted his head, in the shape of an intricate triangular pattern of snakes weaving through an open-mouthed skull. Akira smiled.</p>
<p>He recognized these even as he carefully slid the lid off, saw the first card shimmering in those same shifting colors. Yet another of his many part-time jobs, sitting with Chihaya and helping change the fates of her customers. After all the time he spent with the twins and “Igor” in the Velvet Room, of course Akira recognized a Tarot deck.</p>
<p>Clearly a high-quality brand, too. The cards had the same ultra-smooth, glossy texture, and giddiness welled up inside him as he removed the deck and examined each card. The Major Arcana all had these wonderfully abstract designs, full of snakes and eyes and hearts and lungs. Broken hands clutching a tottering scale made him pause. <em>Justice. </em>That had always been Goro’s arcana. The twins told him as much, and Lavenza had confirmed it. She said they had formed an unbreakable bond – a blood oath. Hearing something like that almost rendered the ring he bought last month irrelevant, just a formality.</p>
<p>After scanning every card as a greeting, Akira separated the Major Arcana from the Minor, then divided the Minor into their four suits: pentacles, wands, swords, and cups. After all, why not do a little love test with the gift from his lover?</p>
<p>He held his palm over the cards, closed his eyes, and recited the words Chihaya taught him to say. “O divine power,” he whispers, “bring forth my fortune.”</p>
<p>He shuffled each cut of the deck separately: Major Arcana first, then wands, then cups, then swords, then pentacles. He drew a card from each stack, placing the Major Arcana face-down in the center, then one of each suit around it. Chihaya called it the Wheel of Fortune spread, which always made him laugh. Come to think of it, he never told her she represented that arcana in his life. She might be the only one who would understand. He’ll have to write her a letter. Taking a deep breath, Akira braced himself and flipped the first card.</p>
<p>
  <em>Justice.</em>
</p>
<p>Akira burst into laughter. He couldn’t have planned it better if he tried.</p>
<p>Representing the center of the wheel, the Major Arcana placement indicated the focus of the reading, which all other suits would then influence. Well, obviously, Goro would be on his mind for a love reading. He almost wished his boyfriend would come out of hiding for this one; he’d roll his eyes with disbelief. Even Akira wasn’t sure if he believed; Chihaya certainly had a gift, and Akira believed in her. But just cards? Who could say. However, this was a promising start.</p>
<p>Moving on to the next card: wands, placed above the Major Arcana position. Representing the spiritual aspect to the reading’s focus. The card face showed four wooden sticks laying over each other to form a diamond, in which a serpent lay coiled. Four of wands, then, representing peace and stability. A respite after hard work, a time for indulgence and relaxation, like the snake coiled within its secure burrow. Ren smiled. Certainly, his soul felt relaxed and secure. Two for two so far.</p>
<p>Next were the cups, to the left of center, representing the emotional aspect. Akira’s stomach churned thinking about it. This could either be the most exciting or the most disheartening. Flipping it revealed... seven of cups. His face twisted to a frown. That wasn’t what he expected. Seven triangular vessels, six of which were neatly aligned in two lines of three. Harmonious. The seventh stood apart, tipped over, glittery two-tone liquid languidly spiraling around the others. This card always presented a warning: Not to take on too many responsibilities, not to overextend oneself. Like the tipped over cup, one more straw could break the camel’s back and ruin all his other efforts. Akira had been dumbly hoping for another uncomplicated happy card, like two of cups or even ten of cups, something about blissful coupling. Not... whatever this meant. He bit his lip. He’d need to see the rest of the reading.</p>
<p>Below center were swords. His hand shook a little as he touched the back of the card. Swords could be... unpleasant. Representing hardship, tough decisions, and action. Would this help him resolve the warning the cups gave him? He turned it and saw the knight of swords. In the abstract face art, the knight was represented by a gleaming helmet and sword, a bolt of lightning hanging right above him. Akira’s heart sank into his chest. He knew what this one meant, even without needing to interpret the vague art. Usually, it meant a foolhardy, arrogant, focused young man, willing to charge blindly into any danger to achieve his goals. Chihaya had pulled this card for him during a love reading, back when he was still in high school, and told him as a partner, the knight of swords feared intimacy, rarely opened up, but thrived on intellectual discussion. The knight meant the need to muster courage, make decision, take action.</p>
<p>Akira worried at a lock of his hair. So either this card <em>also </em>represented Goro, like Justice, or it represented Akira’s need to act and decide... something, based on the vague threat of the cups. He sighed, frustrated. He wasn’t as strong an intuitive reader like Chihaya, didn’t have the “special gift” like her, and maybe he was misreading things. Maybe he did it wrong, maybe it was bullshit, maybe the deck was defective. He considered taking a picture and sending it to the fortune-teller, but he stopped himself. He had one more card left to flip.</p>
<p>Pentacles, coins, wealth, practicality. The card of money and business. He couldn’t imagine how this one would be of any help. Turning over the final card, he saw seven pentagrams bursting from the earth, wreathed in thorny vines. He gasped, then laughed in relief. <em>Patience, </em>the card told him. <em>Your efforts will have rewards. Don’t give up, keep working hard, and you will reap a bountiful harvest. </em>Akira stroked down the edge of the card, the ultra-glossy finish giving him shivers. This card represented fear, of being trapped, of new things, of going beyond one’s limits, yet promised that, like a shoot of Chinese bamboo that slept dormant in the ground for five years before suddenly shooting up at incredible speed, with patience, perseverance, and tender care, anything was possible. Akira swept up the cards and quietly thanked them for the effort, putting them back in order in their box.</p>
<p>Goro only drifted out of the bedroom at the smell of Akira’s freshly-made coffee, and he greeted his sleepy boyfriend with him a steaming fresh mug. “Merry Christmas,” he said brightly.</p>
<p>“Meh chris,” Goro slurred in his unintelligible sleep-strained voice. Still, he took the coffee and sat at the table. Akira leaned against the counter and waited.</p>
<p>After the fourth sip, Goro finally registered what was in front of him. “What’s this?” he asked like he didn’t already know.</p>
<p>“I got a really nice Christmas present,” Akira teased. “Can I use it on you?”</p>
<p>Goro eyed him with suspicion. “You know I don’t believe in that stuff.”</p>
<p>Akira shrugged and sat opposite him. “You don’t have to, it’ll just be for fun. Here, it’ll be quick.”</p>
<p>This time, Akira used the whole deck, shuffling with a gambler’s expertise, quickly laying out the cards in a classic Celtic cross pattern, face-up. He didn’t want to bore Goro with a card-by-card reading like he’d done for himself and, taking the advice the cards just gave him, he decided to push a little, engage in some rousing intellectual discussion. He scanned over the whole spread, quickly interpreting upright and reversed meanings, positioning, what it all meant. His heart fluttered at what it said, confirming what he had been suspecting. The small box in his pocket felt so heavy.</p>
<p>“Let’s see here, Akechi-san...” He tapped his chin with a dramatic grin, and Goro rolled his eyes and took another bracing sip. “What do the cards hold for you?</p>
<p>“Conflicts in your past. A burning need for justice and revenge, lots of negative emotions tied up in here.”</p>
<p>“You didn’t need cards to tell you that,” Goro mocked with a raised eyebrow.</p>
<p>“Hush, someone in Featherman pajamas doesn’t get to question my process.” Goro flushed and swallowed down his next biting comment with more coffee. “The future is easy enough for me to read, we just have to set the stage, first.</p>
<p>“Next, your present. A time of stability, happiness. You are content, probably for the first time in your life.” Goro’s heavy sigh cut through the air, and Akira tried to ignore it without another chastisement. “<em>But,</em>” he cut off whatever was brewing in his clever detective’s head. “There’s some anxiety in that peace. You’re feeling restless. <em>Is this it, </em>you find yourself asking. <em>Is this all there is to my life now? </em>After all that anger and aggression and passion in your youth, you’re worried you could get a little bored now.”</p>
<p>Goro finally bothered to look contrite and, dare Akira believe, a little curious. Interested. Like maybe Akira picked out what his own reading had suggested. Now they’re getting somewhere.</p>
<p>“That’s your subconscious influence. There’s external forces, too – friends are almost too encouraging, like it weirds you out or something. You’re not used to that. That makes you feel even pricklier, like you can’t trust the assurances people provide you. And you lean more into your gut feeling, wondering if maybe you should look for an exit rather than get comfortable, because you’d rather the decision be something you control.”</p>
<p>By now Goro had slouched fully into his chair, looking like he would rather sink into the floor than continue this discussion. Maybe Akira hit a little too close, saying some things he had been suspecting but didn’t want to admit. Around the handle of his coffee mug, Goro’s knuckles whitened. But Akira wasn’t worried. The cards offered the perfect answer. He just needed to get to it before Goro actually did run out of the room.</p>
<p>“One possible future is just that – you take some space for yourself, to try to figure out what you want. And that’s definitely an option, but ultimately that might hurt you more in the long run. But if you listen to the advice of others–” Akira waggled his eyebrows meaningfully, glancing plainly at the spread of cards below. “You’ll find the answer to all your concerns.”</p>
<p>Goro’s Adam’s apple did a little flip in his throat. “And what’s that, Akira?”</p>
<p>Akira smiled softly, pushing the final card- the two of cups- towards Goro. He took it, studying the two wine glasses tilted drunkenly toward each other on the face, brow furrowed in confusion. Then Akira went on one knee next to him, and Goro jumped so high he almost knocked himself out of his chair.</p>
<p>“A...kira?” Goro almost couldn’t form his name. “You aren’t– wait, stop–”</p>
<p>“Akechi Goro,” Akira said with a smugness born out of the knowledge he rendered the famous, charismatic Detective Prince almost incoherent. He pulled the box out of his pocket and opened it for Goro, showing the dark black tungsten engagement band within. “My <em>prince.</em>”</p>
<p>“You’re such a stupid idiot,” Goro cursed, blinking back tears. He frowned to keep himself from smiling, and it wasn’t working.</p>
<p>“Could be your idiot, forever.”</p>
<p>Goro carefully pinched the ring between two fingers and lifted it, inspecting it in the light. It caught refractions of pinks and greens like an oil slick. Like a Tarot deck he recently bought for someone he cared more about than he would admit. “I think I prefer rival, still.”</p>
<p>Akira laughed breathlessly, standing and leaning into Goro, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend, his– his <em>fiancé? </em>“Does this mean you accept?”</p>
<p>“Well, there’s a tradition in the West to throw one’s glove...”</p>
<p>Akira shut him up with a smiling, snickering kiss. “I accepted your glove. Will you accept my ring?”</p>
<p>Goro grinned right into Akira’s mouth. “Is that a challenge?”</p>
<p>Akira threads his fingers into Goro’s hair, tasting his every shaky exhale, luxuriating in the quiver he felt down to his roots. “Always.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The tarot deck is inspired by <a href="https://www.thethreadsoffate.com/collections/all/products/the-weaver-tarot-ascendant-1">The Weaver Tarot - Ascendant</a> by Threads of Fate, although the description of the designs is made up.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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